I'm Jonathan Capehart and this is a special edition of Cape Up.

The nation is engulfed in misguided and misinformed debate about critical race theory, a concept

that's only been taught in law schools.

And yet, local school districts are racing to ban it from being taught to children.

But let's be honest, what they're really doing is blocking a more honest teaching of America's

painful history as a reaction against the 1619 project.

Brian Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has been

trying to engage us in that more honest historical reflection for years.

The most visible expression of that effort is the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial

for Peace and Justice, aka the lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.

This conversation with Stevenson is from 2018, but the ground we cover remains timeless.

And listen to and explain why we must come to terms with our history if we're ever to

start healing right now.

Brian Stevenson, thank you very much for being on the podcast and for having us down

here in your offices at the Equal Justice Initiative here in Montgomery, Alabama.

Thank you.

It's great to be with you.

So, before we get to the reason why we're actually down here, I want you to define

a term that you see when you go to the Legacy Museum, when you go to the National Memorial

for Peace and Justice.

And that is racial terror lynchings.

Do I have that right?

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